Archived News
February 2006
Beds villages expect to be safe from greenfield development
South Bedfordshire villages including Heath and Reach, Hockliffe, Stanbridge and Eaton Bray look set to escape major housebuilding over the next 15 years.
While Leighton-Linslade is officially a growth location in the Milton Keynes Sub-regional Strategy, these proposals only apply to the urban areas of Leighton Buzzard and Linslade.
South Beds District Council will be considering the extent of future housing estates and best directions for growth, and will set the boundaries after a green belt review of the town. It appears inevitable that Leighton-Linslade will have to balloon out into the countryside somewhere in the next few years.
But the surrounding villages are not part of the growth location, and will be subject instead to the draft East of England Plan, which will operate up to 2021.
This currently sets out a policy of restricting development in villages to that arising from local needs only, and of an appropriate scale and nature symapthetic to local character.
This policy is one of a number of points due to be discussed at the Examination in Public (EiP) on the draft East of England Plan at Letchworth this Thursday.
Adrian Cannard, Strategy and Implementation Manager for the East of England Regional Assembly, told the LBO this week: "The Assembly will be putting a case before the independent panel that development in the villages of South Bedfordshire District, in total, should be less than 80 dwellings a year over the Plan period.
"Given existing commitments, the majority of this is likely to be accommodated through the re-use of redundant land and buildings, and it is unlilely that any 'greenfield' development will be required."
Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 21 February 2006
Youth Soccer: Eaton Bray Lions
US Valerio Youth B - 8,
Eaton Bray Lions - 5
EB Lions started the match well with a goal from Jack Coates and a second from Matt Storey within the first ten minutes. However, the home team fought back and were rewarded with two goals in quick succession to draw level.
Further attacking play from US Valerio gained them a third goal, a simple header from a corner, and Lions conceded an own goal just before half-time.
US Valerio could have scored more but the Lions' defence, Matt Lancefield, Josh Gradley and Lee Cavendish, played the offside rule effectively.
Jack Coates scored for Lions early in the second half. Velerio responded with a header and Sam Marshall followed up an attacking move to be rewarded with a goal.
Charlie Oliver worked hard in goal (with some help from the goalposts) to fend off another period of attacking play from US Valerio and then play shifted to the opposite end as Lions desperately strived for an equaliser.
Unfortunately Lions could no longer fend off the home team who scored another three in quick successions.
Matt Storey scored his second to give a final score of 8-5.
Andrew Broughton was awarded man of the match for consistent hard work.
Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 21 February 2006
Teasel dolls have become famous
Eaton Bray WI members welcomed their guest speaker Alison Deering, who brought along a large collection of "Haversham Hedgehogs". These were not the small round prickly nocturnal variety, but a collection of delightful small dolls made from teasel seed heads.
Alison explained how she first became interested in making the dolls. Her hobby of beekeeping takes her around many country shows and craft fairs during the summer months, and during the course of thise she saw some items made from teasels. This gave her and a friend the idea of making hedgehog dolls.
Alison's first attempt at selling the dolls at a craft fair turned out to be a complete flop. However a friend later offered to take some into their workplace to try to sell them, and this proved to be much more successful with the hedgehog dolls selling like hot cakes!
The dolls were dressed in a variety of outfits ranging from nursery rhyme characters through to a bride and groom, bridesmaids and all the wedding guests!
Haversham Hedgehogs have been in existence for 20 years and are sent all over the world. Alison now has a "production line" in her kitchen to keep up with the demand.
Eaton Bray WI President reminded the meeting that the institute's AGM will be on April 2 and there will be two committee vacancies to fill.
The sale of Pasque Christmas Bells raised £40 and this has been sent to the charity. A thank you letter has been received, and with it an invitation for members to visit the Pasque Hospice.
The next meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday March 6 at Eaton Bray Village Hall.
Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 14 February 2006
Parish Council Minutes - February 2006
A summary of this month's meeting, along with a downloadable copy of the full minutes is now available from the Parish Council website.
Minutes of Meeting: Monday 6th February 2006
Source: Eaton Bray Parish Council
St Mary's Village Carnival
OK, it's only February but there's already lots going on to get set for the next St Mary's Village Carnival, for Eaton Bray and Edlesborough on July 1.
The theme for this year's carnival is Films, and it's never too early to start thinking about your fancy dress costume.
All sorts of great attractions are being lined up, including hot air balloon rides, belly dancers, the carnival procession and vintage cars.
Meanwhile don't be alarmed if you see a pantomime cow wandering around before the carnival. It'll be Clarabelle, one of the stars of the show.
For the celebrity cow will be out and about with local teenagers before the big day. She will be promoting the special event in which people try to guess where she'll leave a 'message' in the carnival arena.
I think it's about time Clarabell was on a reality TV show. Let's see of we can get her onto Celebrity Big Br-udder...
Source: Gazette Gossip with Anne O'Donaghue, Dunstable Gazette, 8 February 2006
It's all Greek for film fans
Don't miss the next screening of a film at the Eaton Bray Village Hall Cinema, which will be packing in the punters on Monday.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (PG), a hit romantic comedy starring Nia Vardalos and John Corbett, will be shown at the village hall at 2pm.
Tickets are £3.50, and are on sale through the box office. Call 01525 220227 if you'd like any more details.
Source: Dunstable Gazette, 8 February 2006
Should schools be restructured?
A consultation on the structure of Bedfordshire County Council schools began on Monday [30-Jan].
The consultation excercise will ask whether moving to a different structure of schools could improve academic performance, or whether improvements should be made to the current three-tier structure of lower, middle and upper schools.
The county council is concerned that while standard of achievment by pupils in Bedfordshire is good between ages three to five, they are not as good as they should be as a pupil progresses through school.
Last August, the county council was reviewing its system with a view to bringing the county in line with other local authorities.
Councillor Peter Hollick is the cabinet member responsible for education at the county council.
He said: "It is important that everyone involved or connected to education in the county contributes to this debate.
"We do not have a preferred structure for Bedfordshire schools but doing nothing is not an option.
"If we keep the existing system we must be clear about the work that will be done to improve standards."
Public meetings will take place across the county in March and workshops have been organised for headteachers, governors and school staff and pupils will be consulted at their schools.
Peter Hollick added: "Whatever the final recommendation is, it will have one aim, to improve standards so that young people in Bedfordshire can fulfil their potential."
The county council will meet in July to decide on the best structure for Bedfordshire schools.
For more information about the consultation log onto www.fours.co.uk/bedfordshire
Source: Luton/Dunstable on Sunday, 5 February 2006
Eaton Bray Lions AFC Mid-Season Report
The club would like to say a big thank you to all the parents, relatives and friends of our footballers and to the readers of Focus magazine who so kindly collected Tesco Vouchers for us.
We are also grateful to the Farm Shop at Dagnall and Kafe Kalor at Edlesborough for acting as collection points. You provided the club with over 3,500 vouchers which we are using to obtain training equipment for the new Under 8 team which will be recruited for the 2006/2007 season. In addition we have ordered equipment, such as football pumps, for the existing teams. The vouchers have enabled us to order over £200 worth of equipment so I'm sure you'll agree that it was a worthwhile excercise. We would also like to thank Edlesborough School for allowing some of our teams to train and play home games on their playing field and Ben and Jan Wright for letting us use their field for winter training.
On a chilly but bright Saturday morning in December I dropped one son off at Holman's Field for football training and then proceeded to Edlesborough Green where there was an amazing sight to behold. EB Lions under 9 and girls under 12 teams were playing matches, the under 10 team was warming-up to play their match and the boys under 12 team were training. The Green was a sea of black and white striped shirts and red and black training tops! Whilst the newspapers seem full of scare stories about childhood obesity and lack of PE in schools it was a heart-warming to see so many of the village children enjoying the competitive sport of football. It was also most gratifying to see how many dog-walkers and parents taking their children to the playground had stopped to watch the matches and cheer on the home teams. We really appreciate your support and the children find it very encouraging and inspiring. If you would like to see how the teams are getting on please access our website at www.eblions.co.uk where you will find information about the club and weekly results and match reports.
By Christmas all the teams had reached the mid-point of their fixtures so the managers have provided a brief summary of the season so far.
The Eaton Bray Lions Under 8 squad came together over the summer of 2005, with 9 boys and 2 girls from Edlesborough, Eaton Bray, Northall, Dagnall and Ivinghoe Aston. They've come up against some good teams, who have been playing together for a longer time period than they have, but despite some difficult games the players continue to improve, work hard for each other, never give up, and most importantly really enjoy themselves!
The Under 9 team had a good opening to the season with a 6-1 win over St Joseph's Greens. Since then they've won four out of seven games, although they lost to the league leaders at the start of January. They are fifth in the table at the moment, but they do have a game in hand.
The Under 10's have continued their superb progress, after finishing second in the top division of Chiltern Junior Sevens League for the last 2 years, by qualifying for Division 1 (40 teams now compete in 4 divisions). At Christmas they were in 4th place with a game in hand and if they win that they will go into second place and try to catch Hitchin Town. They also face Barton Villa in the league Cup semi final in late January and hope to reach the final as Cup holders after last years epic final victory over Barton. There is a great team and parent spirit in the Under 10's and everyone is invited to watch this great team play on Saturday morning on the Green (in front of the tennis courts) for their home games.
This season heralded a new phase in the growth of EB Lions with the introduction of a girls Under 12 side. The first half of the season started with some big defeats against the more established sides in the League but culminated in a thrilling 5-4 victory over top of the League Leighton Utd. This was a fantastic match on the village green with plenty of local support and gives us huge encouragement to progress in the second part of the season in both the League and the Cup.
The Under 12's boys' team had a flying start to the season reaching top of the division by the start of October and were still lying in second place at the end of that month. However, a series of disappointing results has seen them drop down the table and they are determined to produce better performances in 2006. Their first match of the year was an encouraging 4-1 victory over Houghton Wanderers.
Although the Under 14 team has enjoyed the season so far, making good use of the village pitch at Holman's Field, the results have not matched the effort put in. Often the managers of opposing teams said that we were the better side even when we lost! We look forward to better luck this year which got off to a great start with a brilliant 1-0 win over Limbury Saints despite difficult circumstances.
-- Liz Coates (Press Officer)
Source: Focus, February 2006
Eaton Bray WI
Our President Deirdrea Ellins welcomed members to our January meeting, after singing a rousing Jerusalem it was down to business.
A thank you letter has been received from the Luton NHS Trust thanking the Eaton Bray WI for the Christmas hamper and gifts sent for the long-term mentally ill patients.
A number of social invitations have been received to join our friends in the Dunstable Group of WI's and a number of outings have already been arranged.
We are sad to hear that one of our members is seriously ill and in hospital. A card is to be sent wishing her a speedy recovery back to good health.
We welcomed our speaker Paul Marsden from the trading standards department who showed us a video on how to deal with bogus doorstep callers. He then spoke about our consumer rights. This was followed by a question and answer session.
Paul gave us all a calendar with useful tips and phone numbers on dealing with unwanted callers.
Our evening concluded with the committee performing their mini comic version of Dick Whittington. Our very own Sheila Beal rounded off the proceeding with a hilarious monologue on the subject of Christmas.
Our next meeting is on 6th February at 7.30pm in Eaton Bray Village Hall; new members and friends are very welcome.
Source: Focus, February 2006
Methodist Church Report
Our Christmas Lunches and Bazaar were a great success. Thank you to everyone that helped and to the many people who came along on the day. The proceeds from the day of £1,000 will be shared between the Iain Rennie hospice at home and our Church Maintenance Fund.
The Carols Evening was well supported. Our thanks to John Mead for organising an excellent programme and our organists Jean Carter and Margaret Mead for their playing.
Many thanks to our young people and their teachers for producing a very special Carol Service. We were treated to a most entertaining slant on the Christmas Message - with their Christmas Alphabet presentation.
One of our organists Sandra Johnson, is to take over the responsibility for music at St. Augustines Church in Dunstable. We shall miss Sandra's dedication and expertise in our organist team. We thank her for all her help over many years and wish her will in her new position.
February lunches will be served on Saturday 11th from 12.00 noon until 1.30pm and the charity to be support will be the Tigers Club Project which works with street children across Africa to rebuild lives, restore dignity and realise potential. Do join us.
Source: Focus, February 2006
Auction of Promises
Cast your minds back to 2004. The funding for Stage One of the Village Hall refurbishment was nearing completion - £150,000 had been raised or promised. Step forward a small party of 5 Gallant Idiots ("GIs") with those reckless words "no problem, we will start to raise money for Stage Two" (new toilets, disabled toilet, baby changing facilities and new meeting room).
Well, there we were, and here we still are, and so far we have raised £18,500! You will have seen many articles and adverts in Focus telling you how this has been achieved, but actually, it ALL comes back to the generosity of YOU.
The group have also been ably helped by the benevolance of the Village Carnival Committee, who made us their major recipient in 2004, and by The Villagers, who have organised two major events for the benfit of the hall, the last being the ball held on 10th December 2005, which was a great success. Thank you to the 'old codgers' (you guys can sue me for defamation, but I am as old as some of you and definately more codgery than most of you anyway!).
With only 5 and sometimes 6 "GIs" we thought, "how could we lighten the load?" You see we are not really that stupid. Ha! A flash of brilliance came upon one of the "GIs" (well he was seen to move): "why not get some help from other organisations in the village?" Thus, two years ago, we approached the Village School, to arrange an Auction of Promises. Hey presto 5 "GIs" joined by some young parents from the Home School Association (HSA), thus reducing the average age by half, set about organising this very successful event.
Fast-forward to 2006, and... well you can guess the rest can't you. The School want to improve the outdoor facilities for the children and we still need toilets for the hall. What an emotive combination! So here we go again with another Auction of Promises. Friday March 31st 2006 is the date, and the venue is the Village Hall!
We have some superb Promises to Auction, including a Helicopter Flight with Mike Smith; yes the same Radio 1 DJ and Telvision presenter who married Sarah Greene and broke many a heart of men of a certain age! Who likes Pink Floyd? We have some memorabilia signed by drummer Nick Mason. Someone going to a wedding? Well why not get that special hat made especially for you in the style and colour of your choice: not only will it save you money, but think how happy hubby will be not having to visit 20 shops just to find the right colour! Interested in your family tree? Then let an expert help you. Want to hold a dinner party, but want someone else to do all the hard work? Then come along and bid for it, have a great time, and help TWO worthy causes.
For any further information or to buy tickets, contact Eaton Bray Lower School on 220468.
Source: Focus, February 2006